JAKARTA (Reuters) -More than 20 flights to and from the Indonesian resort island of Bali were cancelled or delayed and three airports in East Nusa Tenggara province were closed due to the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, officials said on Wednesday.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, which is in East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted on Tuesday, spewing ash 11 km (7 miles) high, forcing the country's volcanology agency to raise the alert level to the highest.
It erupted again on Wednesday morning, belching a 1 km (0.62 mile) high ash cloud, the agency said in a statement.
At least 26 international and domestic flights were cancelled or delayed, Indonesia's Transportation Ministry said in a statement, affecting more than 14,000 passengers.
These included at least 14 flights from India, Singapore and Australia to Bali, the Bali international airport website showed.
Singapore Airlines cancelled four flights between Bali's Denpasar airport and Singapore, and its budget subsidiary Scoot cancelled flights to Bali and the neighbouring island Lombok, the airlines said.
Qantas' low-cost carrier JetStar cancelled several morning flights to Bali from Australia and expects afternoon flights to be delayed.
"Forecasts show the ash cloud is expected to clear by later tonight," JetStar said in a midday travel bulletin.
A number of flights operated by AirAsia Malaysia and AirAsia Indonesia to and from Bali, Lombok and Labuan Bajo were also cancelled or rescheduled, the company said in a statement.
The government closed three airports in EastNusa Tenggara province, including Fransiskus Xaverius Seda in Maumere, from Wednesday until Thursday, as they prioritised the safety of the passengers, said the transportation ministry.
The eruption also forced local authorities to evacuate dozens of residents living in two villages near the volcano, Avi Hallan, an official at the local disaster mitigation agency told Reuters.
"Streets in the two villages were filled with thick ash, gravel, and sand," she said, adding no casualties were reported.
The volcano last erupted in May.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates.
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia; additional reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
